By Shailesh Kapoor
The ICC Cricket World Cup is less than two weeks away. The mad rush for tickets has been the dominant headline associated with the tournament so far. But as we get closer to the date (October 5), on-field action will, hopefully, be where all the attention is.
Earlier this week, ICC released an abomination of a video in the name of the event’s theme song, titled Dil Jashn Bole. There’s so much wrong with the song that one wouldn’t know where to start. Why is the song of a world tournament in Hindi, when it’s not even the language all of India understands? Bizarrely enough, the official YouTube version does not even have English subtitles. Fans have been brutal about their feedback, remembering the much-superior De Ghuma Ke, which was the theme song the last time the event was held in India, in 2011. Despite being in Hindi as well, that song was distinctly Indian (and sporty) in its spirit, and never seemed to struggle on inclusion.
Which brings me to the main point of this piece: The random obsession with Bollywood. With due respect to Ranveer Singh, who’s a fine actor, ICC (or BCCI, whoever greenlit this train-wreck of a project, pun intended) should have known better. Cricketers don’t need film stars to represent the sport to the fans. And even if one were to go in that direction, someone with a pan-India and global stature would be a minimum expectation for World Cup of a sport India is crazy about. Like an ensemble of SRK, Allu Arjun and Vijay, for example, in the video.
Obsession of other domains with Bollywood was also evident in the Parliament this week, when Kangana Ranaut and Esha Gupta were present on the day when the Women’s Reservation Bill was presented (and passed) in Lok Sabha. The former’s choice is clearly political in nature, and I don’t quite know what to make of the latter’s presence on the day.
Over the last few years, and since the pandemic in particular, the idea of stardom has evolved in India, and is clearly a lot more ‘pan India’ in its spirit. As per Ormax Stars India Loves, out of the Top 10 most popular male and female film stars each in August 2023, only three men (SRK, Akshay and Salman) and four women (Alia, Deepika, Kiara, Katrina) hail from the Hindi film industry. The Bollywood lens should have been an obsolete idea by now, for events of national and international significance. Yet, it continues to find more than a few takers.
Ironically, this obsession doesn’t do Bollywood much good. The industry has been fighting for reputation, and even as box-office has been better this year (though driven by the stars from the 90s, which makes the success precarious), the overall image of a low-on-innovation, spoilt, and inward-looking industry continues to persist as a media narrative. And projects such as the Dil Jashn Bole video only add to that narrative.
Image management at an industry level is always tricky terrain, because the ownership is de-centralised. But one hopes that somehow, the industry finds a way to come together to address what’s a growing concern, definitely for brands, if not for the box office.
Meanwhile, away from all this, let the games begin!